The Nythalith moved before I had time to fully process the horror before me. Her massive legs struck the ground causing localised tremors, her human face twisting unnaturally as she lunged toward me at a terrifying pace. The air itself seemed to flee from her, her body exuding a choking miasma of terror.

I managed to roll to the side just as one of her legs fell where I had been standing. The force of her blow splintered the webbed floor, the sheer size and power wouldn’t have surprised me if her leg had taken roots like a tree trunk.

“Foolish little Drow,” she hissed, her many eyes glaring through the dim light. “You dare seek revenge? You are nothing! A mere scab!”

Although her words were directed at Thalra, I couldn’t help but take it personally.

A scab? I was once the Crown Prince of Draegoth…

A scab? Against all of the odds, against everything this festering hell has thrown at me so far. I’m not a scab, I’m the long overdue reckoning.

Her words had ignited a fire in me, a desperation to prove her wrong. I lunged forward, Thalra’s dagger in hand as I aimed at her grotesque abdomen. Tendrils shot out from my lower back, trying to ensnare her legs and limit her movements in my own mimicry of the broodmother’s webbing.

But despite her size, she was faster than I had anticipated.

The Nythalith sprang upwards, her gigantic body flipping with an impossible grace considering her size. She landed on a webbed ledge above me, her hideous laughter echoing through the chamber.

“What’s this? You’ve learned a new trick? A cheap imitation?!” she sneered. With a flick of her hand, she pulled at the webs, the platform collapsed, sending a bombardment of silk and bones down towards me.

I drove through the falling debris, using my tendrils as a shell to shield myself, but the distraction had cost me. She descended like a skillful predator, her claws slamming into my back and driving me into the ground below. Pain exploded through my body, my connection to Thalra’s body straining under the force of the attack.

‘She’s too strong!’ Thalra screamed in my head, filled with panic and terror.

“I know!” I spat the black blood that had gathered in my mouth onto the floor, forcing myself to roll away as her next strike landed where I had been forced into the ground.

Her strength was overwhelming, I thought my enhanced strength would be enough. But I couldn’t keep up with the sheer brutality of the Nythalith, even with the improvements I had made to Thalra’s body. I needed to try something else, otherwise it would be us suspended from the ceiling next.

I danced around another swipe of her front legs, falling back to put some distance between us. My mind raced, trying to think of a new tactic, of a skill I hadn’t tried yet, anything that could give me an edge. And then it hit me. I was no longer a goblin, I was in the body of a Drow. Laira’s spell, the one she used against the gargoyle and then again on me. Her blade had shimmered with magic, it tore through the gargoyle and my previous host like it was made of paper.

If Laira could do it, there was a chance I could do something similar.

I focused, drawing on Thalra’s innate mana. Her memories flooded my mind - dark rituals, sacrifices, shadowy energy, the kind of power that thrived in the depths of the dungeon. I could feel her mana building in her core, swelling and circling her body as it travelled through her veins. I concentrated on her dagger, curling my tendrils around it to provide support.

It began to hum, a dark aura flickering around its edge like violet flames. It wasn’t perfect and it didn’t radiate nearly as much power as Laira’s sword did, but it worked.

The Nythalith paused, tilting her head in curiosity. “Oh? The scab is beginning to weep… How amusing.”

I didn’t respond. Words were useless now, I couldn’t taunt the monstrosity when I was so clearly disadvantaged, she was too smart for that.

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I charged forward again, the dagger ablaze with Thalra’s mana. When I struck against the claw, it didn’t glance off of the chitin. Instead sparks erupted as we forced each other back, the shadows around me began to writhe as if they wanted to lash out.

The Queen let out a shriek of annoyance, recoiling as I chased after her and slashed at her abdomen, leaving a deep gash that oozed dark blue ichor.

“You insolent wretch!” she screamed, her face contorting into a mask of disgust and fury.

She retaliated with a flurry of strikes, her claws moving faster than I could track. Each blow sent a shockwave through my body, my regeneration was starting to struggle to keep up with the damage. But I refused to yield, I had too much to lose. We had too much to lose.

I dodged, parried, and retaliated, each swing of the dagger was fueling by a burning resolve and a desperation to survive.

For a moment, it felt like the tide was turning. Like I had the upper hand.

But then I was reminded that she was a Queen.

She leapt up onto another webbed platform, crying out to her children with a pained scream. Within seconds it felt like the walls were crawling, spiders began to burst through the webbing to join the fight and defend their Queen.

I manoeuvred around the room, backed against a webbed pillar as they approached me from all angles while the Nythalith was safe on her perch tending to her wounds.

As they encircled me, they began to spit and swipe at any opening I presented to them. There was nowhere for me to retreat from here, I continued to block and parry strikes as they closed in around me tightly.

I started to struggle to keep up with their relentless prodding, catching a swipe to the shoulder that tore through Thalra’s armour. Long whip-like tendrils engulfed my hands and the dagger, dropping down to the floor as they uncoiled.

With wide, arcing swipes I began to cut through the spiders that had gathered. Creating a haze of blue mist as they were cleaved to pieces, the sound of the tendrils snapping against the air as they reached maximum extension.

The first couple of layers around me quickly fell, helpless against the force of my tendrils. She might not have realised, but she had given me time to recover - and food to sustain myself on. Above me I sensed a spider creeping down the column, instinctively I whipped my hand up, grabbing the spider and devouring it before it could react.

I then cleaned up the fallen wall of spiders in front of me, the familiar rush of energy washing over me as I consumed the corpses of the fallen.

The Nythalith must have noticed, because she leapt up into the air to strike again. Feeling revitalised I kicked off of the ground to meet her, but she caught me mid-air. Her enormous legs slamming into my side and sending me hurtling into the web-covered wall. Before I could free myself from the webbing, she was on me.

One of her claws pierced my shoulder, pinning me against the wall like a grotesque trophy. I instinctively cried out in pain, my tendrils lashing out wildly, trying to dislodge her.

“You thought you could challenge a Queen,” she hissed, leaning in closer. Her human face was inches from mine, her foul breath hitting me like a wall. “But you were nothing then, and you’re nothing now. An offering for my children.”

I tried to summon my strength, to channel more energy into the dagger, but she twisted her claw, sending another crippling wave of agony through my shoulder. My grip failing, the dagger slipped from my hand and clattered on the ground below.

And then the spiders came as promised.

Dozens of them, the familiar skittering sound was a hellish orchestra as they swarmed in from all angles, climbing up the walls and descending from their webs above. Their fangs sinking into my flesh, the venom burning like no pain I had ever felt. I could feel my body going numb, but the pain kept my conscious, a cruel dichotomy.

My tendrils lashed out, crushing a few of them, but there were too many. They covered me, biting, tearing, trying to devour me alive.

‘This can’t be the end,’ I thought, my vision beginning to blur as I could feel my senses retracting. The world around me was growing darker.

Thalra’s voice was faint in my mind, but there was no panic now, only grim determination. ‘If you die here, I swear to the Goddess I will find you in the next life and kill you again! Fight damnit!’

The Nythalith's laughter erupted through the mass of spiders on top of me, her hideous voice muffled. “Eat my lovelies, mother has prepared this for you herself.”

Her laughter echoed in my ears as the darkness continued to encroach, the weight of the spiders was threatening to crush the life out of me. The feeling of their hairs against my skin revolted what little sensation I had left.

I wasn’t done yet, I couldn’t be.

I still had to find Laira, I still had to get out of here. I still had to have my revenge.

Even as the pain threatened to drown me, even as the venom raged through my veins, I reached deep within myself, to the core of my very being. I needed something, anything.

That’s when I heard it.

From the depths of my soul, a primal roar, a furious sound that drowned out everything.